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Grace to You :: Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time Rapture and Resurrection Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 Code

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Grace to You :: Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time Rapture and Resurrection Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 Code Grace to You :: Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time Rapture and Resurrection Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 Code: 90-498 Turn to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, and verses 13 through 18. Let me read this to you and then we’ll make some comments about it and dig down a little bit into it. This will be a little bit more detailed look at the very specific event that is the resurrection of believers. Verse 13: “But we do not want you to be uninformed,” – or ignorant – “brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” The details of what happens to Christians after they die were elusive in the early church, and the Thessalonians were worried about that subject: “Where do Christians go after they die? What happens to their souls? And, in particular, what happens to their bodies?” This set of questions troubled young believers in the church at Thessalonica, as we might assume, because they didn’t have the full revelation that we do in the New Testament. Their concern, however, was rather specific. Paul had been teaching them when he ministered to them about the fact that Jesus was going to return. And, in fact, he taught them as if it could happen in their lifetime. If you go back to chapter 1, for example, the chapter ends with these words: “That they had, believers had turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.” Paul talked about the coming of Christ as if it was going to happen in their lifetime, and they were waiting for that event. In chapter 2, you also have reference to the return of Christ, verse 19, “Who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?” There are other references to His coming in this epistle. Over in chapter 5, “As to the times” – verse 1 – “and the seasons, or epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day will overtake you like a thief; for you’re all sons of light and sons of day. We’re not of night nor of darkness.” They expected the coming of Christ. They also expected the judgment of God in an event called the day of the Lord, a very familiar Old Testament term. But they were living in the expectation that this could happen in their lifetime. And, actually, nothing is said by Paul in any of his writings about this, either here or in 1 Corinthians 15, that would lead them to believe that it couldn’t possibly happen in their lifetime. So there is then an imminent event, the return of Christ in some way that could happen in their lifetime. That is what is behind the passage that I read to you. And the question they were asking is this: If this event is going to happen – this great event, the Lord is going to return, He’s going to be with us, we’re going to be with Him, we’re going to be in His presence – what happens to Christians who die before His return? That is the question. And it’s essentially posed in verse 13: “We do not want you to be of uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” They were so worried about what was going to happen to Christians that died that they would therefore miss the great event of the coming of the Lord, that they were burdened by it, if not actually grieved by the thought that some of the folks they loved would miss this event. And what made it seem more grievous was persecution. Many of them perhaps had died or would die under persecution. Back in chapter 3 and verse 3, Paul talks about the fact that “they shouldn’t be disturbed by afflictions. They should know that wee have been destined for this. For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, and so you know.” So you’re headed for affliction, you’re headed for persecution. That, in some cases, will encompass death. What’s going to happen to those people who have been persecuted? They would be the noblest of the noble they would assume. They would be entitled, I guess, to the best of any future event that God would bring to pass; and yet would they miss it if they had died? And then what about the people who died by natural causes? Would they miss the great event of Christ’s return? Was their death then maybe a judgment on them? Was this kind of like 1 Corinthians 11:30, the believers who desecrated the Lord’s Table in some way had actually died because of that sin, they had been punished by the Lord? Would they then not participate in this great reunion and the subsequent gathering into heaven? Would they somehow remain simply living spirits but never have a body? Would they be considered somehow lesser saints because they didn’t participate in that great event? This whole matter produced in them a certain amount of grief, because they were marked by a very, very important virtue. Go to chapter 4, verses 9 and 10: “Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. The best we can do is urge you, brethren, to excel still more.” They were marked by love. In fact, this is the only church that Paul ever wrote to that he didn’t drag out their sin and confront it. There isn’t anything like that in his letters to them. They were marked by a profound love for one another, and even for those outside their local fellowship all throughout Macedonia. This added to the grief in their minds, if someone died and was to miss the second coming, were they going to be a disembodied spirit? Were they going to be a lesser saint? Were they going to miss the great event? Were they somehow not going to experience the presence of the Lord? So Paul writes to them on a more than theological level, on a very practical level to alleviate their angst and their grief about this. He writes to them, verse 123, about those who are asleep. He does not want them to be ignorant. It means those who have died. There is no sense in them being full of grief, no sense in them demonstrating a kind of hopelessness, he says in verse 13, that is legitimate for the rest. We don’t need to grieve as do the rest of the world, meaning those who have no hope. No hope of what? No hope of seeing Christ and no hope of reunion. They were hopeful that all of them, all true believers in this bond of love would be reunited in the presence of the Lord when He came. Was that not going to happen? Were those who already died not going to be a part of that reunion? Were they going to be in another place under different circumstances? Now remember, they didn’t have the full written revelation of the New Testament. This is very early in the life of the church, and these questions had not yet been answered. Clearly they hadn’t been answered by what Paul says here, because the same event is described, as we read in 1 Corinthians 15, as a mystery up to this point, which means it is something that has been hidden and is now finally revealed. Paul answers the distress and the confusion and ignorance with a clear description of a single event that will be the next event on the prophetic calendar. We call it the rapture, and that’s because of verse 17. The verb “caught up, caught up,” harpazó.
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